KOKAMI Shoji

 Playwright / Director

Thank you for visiting the website of KOKAMI Shoji.
This website will introduce you to some of my work and theatrical scripts, translated into English. Please read the introduction and click on 'Scripts' to access a synopsis and partial download of each play.   

SCRIPT OF

TRANCE

You can download and read the first half of the script.
 
Download TRANCE spcrit PDF
To purchase the full text, please contact THIRDSTAGE Ltd. by using the inquiry form of this website.
  
When a chance meeting reunites three old school friends, now making their living as a struggling writer, a psychiatrist and a drag artist, they are all too eager to get reacquainted. But as the stories they tell each other become more and more surreal – from unrequited passions and split personalitities to male eunuchs and escaped Japanese Emperors – they start to question their own and each other's sanity with hilarious consequences.
 

Synopsis

Title: Trance
First Performance: 1993
Length: 2 hours
Cast: 3 (2 men and 1 woman)

Benitani Reiko, a psychiatrist at a mental hospital, receives a visit from Tachihara Masato, her high school classmate. They have not seen each other for a long time and Reiko is delighted. Masato, now a free-lance writer, has come as a patient. He reports that he frequently loses consciousness, at which time his other self appears; that other self once left a mysterious scribble that said “I am a stranger to myself.”
Soon thereafter Masato bumps into Goto Sanzô, another former classmate, at a bar. Sanzô is a gay.
In high school days Reiko, Masato and Sanzô were drawn together by a shared problem: each was struggling with feelings of isolation. They used to spend a lot o f time together on the roof of their school; those times have remained a precious memory. After many years the three renew this friendship.
However, Masato's condition worsens; he insists on being “the Emperor.” He is hospitalized, Reiko becomes his GP, and Sanzô devotedly nurses him. The time Masato recognizes himself as Masato becomes shorter and shorter···.

Reviews

“A surreal comedy... expertly directed and beautifully performed... combines quirky playfulness and philosophical sadness”  Independent
  “Quirky and engaging... playfully done” Financial Times
  “A powerfully acted production” Evening Standard
https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/minds-in-turmoil-7395914.html
  “Rashan Stone gives a gorgeous performance” Financial Times

Production History

DATE Venues

NOV 17,1993 - DEC 05,1993

Aoyama Enkei Theater, TOKYO

DEC 10,1993 - DEC 23,1993 Kintetsu Art-kan, OSAKA
JAN 26,1996 - FEB 26,1996 Kinokuniya Hall, TOKYO 
NOV 8,2005 - NOV 27,2005 Kinokuniya Hall, TOKYO
JUN 6,2007 - JUN 30,2007
Bush Theater, LONDON